I was a reporter covering courts and allied beats in Abuja when an interesting encounter took place between Aare Afe Babalola SAN and then-Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mohmmed Lawal Uwais. It was during proceedings in an appeal on the validity of the ascension of flamboyant owner of Obat Oil, Frederick Obateru Akinruntan to the Olugbo throne, with Afe as his lead counsel. It was 2005 if memory served me correctly. In arguing his client’s case before a panel of the apex court headed by Uwais, Afe had referenced a jurisprudential claim to support his submission that Akinruntan was duly selected, to which Uwais demanded the authority Afe was quoting. “Chief, you have to supply us the authority you are quoting” the CJN demanded, with Afe replying, “your Lordship, I am quoting from my book”. With his trademark semi-expressionless visage, Uwais responded “Chief, your book is still your opinion. We are asking for the authority you are quoting”. A visibly flushed Afe quipped, “My Lord, I am an authority” to which the entire courtroom went silent for the moment. After the exchange, Uwais didn’t demand cited authorities again, but gave a long adjournment which obviously didn’t sit well with the Akinruntan legal corner.
But to Dele Farotimi, now-world famous Nigerian lawyer and rights activist, Afe is no jurisprudential authority, but “the grandmaster of judicial corruption in Nigeria” and everywhere is now quacking because Afe won’t let the snide attacks slide, with the fightback from Aare, expectedly shooting Dele’s hitherto barely-recognisable face into both national and international mesosphere, because it is a classical David V Goliath.
As expected, Farotimi’s stock has risen exponentially since his arrest and arraignment. His book in which Afe claimed he and his juniors were defamed, has become a bestseller, flying out of stock everywhere. Top-dog V Underdog is always one-sided and the Nigerian society and the world beyond, are responding accordingly. For countless Nigerians who have held judiciary, both the Bench and the Bar, as irredeemably corrupt, Farotimi’s claims against Afe and other pointedly-accused judicial officers and Senior Advocates, are like Yoruba saying “oju ole re” {unmasking the culprits/thieves}, despite the gaps gnawing at his claims. But the claims are his and he must have his reasons.
Considering the national and international interests the ruckus has attracted, it is almost certain that apart from the police prosecution, the disciplinary body of the Nigerian Bar Association, the National Judicial Council {NJC} and the Chief Justice of Nigeria/the Supreme Court are going to be involved in the matter since judicial institutions were also jabbed by the accuser.
In the public opinion, there is just one winner; Farotimi. Yes, the Nigerian society is judgmental, easily given to emotive response to issues and the affluent like Afe, whether as public or private citizens, stand no chance in its court and various social media posts and public interventions have attested to this subjective stance, but those rushing to judgement can hardly be blamed because judiciary hasn’t really been a beacon of hope for the citizenry. So if a supposed insider is doing the callout, he will surely have the heart of the people, even if there are elements of absurdity in his claims.
Some have even blamed the 94-year-old Ekiti high chief for escalating by complaining about his unflattering mention in a book that was almost non-existent to Nigerians, until the police went about Farotimi’s arrest their peculiar mess {penkelemesi} way. A few are also asking Aare to “jebure” {forgive}, reminding him that “agba ti o binu lomo re po jojo” {the elder who is insult-insulated will have many children, biological and by willing association}.
Well, Aare is one lawyer in Nigeria you can call “baba olomo yoyo” {biblical father of nations}. Apart from two of his “boys” {Akin Olujinmi and incumbent Lateef Fagbemi} serving as Attorney General of the Federation in the running republic, many of the thousands of lawyers who passed through his tutelage, have gone on to become Senior Advocates and top judges. No Nigerian legal firm, defunct or running, has topped that. Also, today, there is no Afe’s mates anywhere again, Bar and Bench. The CJN who is the most senior judicial officer in Nigeria today is a baby-lawyer, compared to Afe. He is rightly epauleted as the grandmaster of the Nigerian judicial system. Beyond a bestseller, Farotimi would have to justify his reversal of that with “grandmaster of judicial corruption”.
I am sure well known to Farotimi and those he accused of judicial fraud in the legal community, is, “onus probandi”; Latin’s term for “burden of proof”. The elasticized form is the maxim “onus probandi actori incumbit” which means “he who asserts must prove”. The maxim, considered to be a general principle of international law is also embedded in Section 131 of the Evidence Act in Nigeria’s legal system, which states that “any person who desires any court to give judgement as to any legal right or liability dependent on the existence of facts shall assert and prove that those facts exist”. That burden is now on Mr. Farotimi.
For the school of thought that Aare should have allowed the book and the very damaging promotional of it by the author fade with time, the reasoning isn’t without merit if the case of Australia’s most decorated living soldier and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, Ben Robert-Smith is to serve as an example. Long and short of the story, he returned from Afghanistan deployment a national hero, then three newspapers, the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Canberra Times ran reports depicting him a war criminal, torturing and killing defenceless, including impaired civilians. He mounted a defamation challenge and lost, with the presiding judge, Justice Anthony Besanko practically calling him a man not worthy of any honour, saying “I have difficulty accepting the applicant’s [Robert-Smith’s] evidence on any disputed issue”. The newspapers simply dug round him to nail him.
In the social media, many already believe Afe is toast by the time Farotimi starts coughing out evidence to show the grand old man abinitio, had no reputation to damage. The thinking is that no Nigerian can be as successful as Afe without skeletons, whether as public or private citizen. Though Afe has refused to hold any public office especially as AGF despite offers from friend and foe in power {even Abacha offered him the position, dispatching presidential jet to bring him to Lagos}, his professional association and friendship with Obasanjo as president is well-documented and despite Obasanjo’s legendary araldite palms when it comes to generosity, there are suspicions he treated his long-time lawyer differently. Now that Farotimi is having his day in court, Nigerians are drawing their popcorn bowls closer for the never-heard-before fetid from Afe’s closet, if any at all, or if any in the accuser’s possession.
Beyond the tango and what I personally consider reckless assertions even if there are credible evidence to boot, there are troubling facts in the disputed case that can’t be ignored. For example, the appeal was tabled before the Supreme Court in 2005, with the judgement coming on July 13, 2013. That is solid eight years after, just for an appeal!
Again, the variation Farotimi thrashed, was delivered on March 18, 2014, more than nine months after the original judgement was delivered. And it was just to correct the portion of the disputed land, covered by the original judgement!
And just saying this; Aloma Mariam Mukhtar was the CJN when this alleged cash-and-carry judgement was delivered. Nigerians still hold her tenure a bright spot. The little I know of her, it is doubtful she would be anyone’s boi-boi, considering she is almost a pariah in retirement because the manipulative blue-blood of the judiciary assumed her condescending and a snub, to them when in office as CJN.
But it is better to allow the ongoing judicial process play out. All parties are in the middle of the sea now, late Ayinde Barrister would advise “kolobele mobele” roughly translating {grab a lifesaving jacket}.
Maybe like Roberts-Smith and his benefactor and backer, Kerry Stokes, who ended up with $35m fine, Farotimi may walk away from this case richer. But he has a burden to discharge first. And to think he drew his conclusion on just a case. Well, he may have his smoking gun somewhere. We wait.
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